Psychology

We flee from affliction the way an animal flees from death. There's a sense in which it's perfectly natural that our response to difficulty in life is aversive. We're only going to be able to live well with the difficulties of life if we face up to them, because they're difficult.

Harvard philosophy professor specializing in ethics and meaning

We have to live in the world as it is, not the world as we wish it would be, is something that we misunderstand. If we are realistic those ideals are usually out of reach, and in fact thinking about them and dreaming about them is a way to punish ourselves for the fact our lives are never going to match up to those ideals.

Harvard philosophy professor specializing in ethics and meaning

Despite every adversity, never give up on your dreams. I am living proof that having been born and brought up in the smallest country in the Southern Hemisphere, it is possible to fulfil your ambition and succeed despite seemingly insurmountable odds.

British actor known for Withnail and I and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Built into her edict, is not to feel any guilt if you find happiness or joy after her death. That is an extraordinarily generous piece of advice.

British actor known for Withnail and I and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

My wife quipped that we're all going to die and it just happened to be her turn. Her pragmatic and humorous attitude was a guide as to how to accept what is unchangeable and inevitable.

British actor known for Withnail and I and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I began a conversation with my future wife in January 1983 and 38 years later, that conversation ended when she drew her last breath at 7.30 in the evening on the 2nd of September 2021. To be truly and completely seen, understood and loved by another Human Being, was her greatest gift to me.

British actor known for Withnail and I and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Four days before she died, she challenged my daughter and I to try and find a pocketful of happiness in each day, which has become the mantra by which we navigate the abyss of grief, following her death. I don't think you ever get over grief, you just have to find a way to accommodate and travel around it.

British actor known for Withnail and I and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

A less experienced, less comfortable, version of myself would get angry and then realise they were angry. The meditative version of me can anticipate when I'm going to get angry- and then, it becomes a choice. Do you want to be angry? Or have a different attitude?

My identity, and that of the company, were one-and-the-same, and that's not just inaccurate, it's unhealthy. You don't want to be on the yo-yo of your company's wins and fails. You can keep doing the right things daily and getting 1% better every day, independently of how the business is performing!

Positions are what people say they want, interests are why they want the things they want. In most deadlocked negotiations, people haven't really got down to understanding what's driving the other side.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

I look at every negotiation as an opportunity to solve a problem between me and the other negotiator. They are not my adversary – I need them – and they need me.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

The more you're negotiating, the more you're staying at the table and engaging – the more information reveals itself. Value may be hidden initially because the other side doesn't know how to bring it up… how to share it with you without you taking advantage of it… as comfort builds, you gather information, and share it too, that becomes a critical part of the process.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

Negotiation is really a life skill, and it's essential in this day and age.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

Community brings out the good… the encourager in people. You could be on a treadmill next to someone who's having a hard time, and it just brings it out of you.

Yes today sucked, but come back tomorrow, I'll meet you there. That means the world to somebody who doesn't feel like getting out of bed that day.

I grew up in survival mode. It was constant. I didn't know what to expect on any given day, what was coming, and I had to be strong enough to be ready for anything – to take it, hide from it, or dodge it. I had to have a strategy.